Gene Parsons
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Gene Parsons (born September 4, 1944 in Los Angeles as Gene Victor Parsons ) is an American country musician, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist ( singer , drummer , guitarist , banjo , mandolin and harmonica player ). Parsons was a member of several influential country rock bands such as the Byrds , Nashville West and the Flying Burrito Brothers .
Career
Parsons, who grew up in the Mojave Desert , began his musical career in 1963 as a bass guitarist with the Castaways , where he replaced the retired Ernie Williams. Here he met Gib Guilbeau and Wayne Moore, with whom he would work again and again in the coming decades. The castaways dissolved after just a few months. Parsons worked again in his previous job as a salesman until he returned to the music business in 1966 together with Guilbeau as the duo Cajun Gib & Gene , this time as a banjo player.
In 1967 the album Cajun Country was recorded, which mainly contained Cajun and country songs composed by Guilbeu . In the same year the two founded the formation Nashville West , named after the club to which they were signed as a house band. Parsons now acted as the drummer . Other members were the guitarist Clarence White and again Wayne Moore. Although Nashville West only released one album, the group is now considered an important pioneer of country rock.
Nashville West dissolved again in 1968, when initially White and shortly afterwards Parsons were poached by the Byrds , who had to regroup after Gram Parsons left . Gene Parsons stayed with the Byrds as a drummer until 1972. During this time the albums Dr. Byrds and Mr. Hyde (1969), Untitled (1970), Byrdmaniax (1971) and Farther Along (1972).
In 1973, Gene Parsons recorded his first solo album, Kindling . A year later there was a resurgence of the Flying Burrito Brothers . In addition to the founding members Sneaky Pete Kleinow and Chris Ethridge, Gib Gilbeau, Joel Scott Hill and - as guitarist, drummer, banjo and harmonica player - Gene Parsons participated. But the Flying Burritos could not build on their earlier successes. There were disputes over musical directions, and Parsons resigned in 1979.
In the following years, Parsons was a member of various bands, but they received little attention in the music scene. It was not until he founded the folk duo Gene Parsons & Meridian Green with his partner Meridian Green, whom he married in 1986, in the mid-1980s , that successes began again. The album Birds of a Feather was released in 1988 and In the Heart of This Town in 1998 . After the turn of the millennium, there was a joint project with the British musician Julian Dawson , from which the album Hillbilly Zen emerged in 2002 .
B-bender
Together with Clarence White, Parsons is considered to be the inventor of so-called B- Bending or String-Bending . This is the mechanical modification of an electric or western guitar , which makes it possible to raise the B-string (corresponds to the B-string) in different ways by up to one and a half tones (two frets) (bending) without adding one having to grab another note. There are different technical approaches to realize this sound generation. The result is a sound very similar to that of a pedal steel guitar . The principle became known under the name Parsons / White B-Bender , although there are already variants for G and E strings.
Discography
Albums
- 1967: Cajun Country (with Gib Guilbeau)
- 1973: Kindling
- 1979: Melodies
- 1988: Birds of a Feather (with Meridian Green)
- 1998: In the Heart of this Town (with Meridian Green)
- 2002: Hillbilly Zen (with Julian Dawson)
Web links
Individual evidence
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Parsons, Gene |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Parsons, Gene Victor (maiden name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American country musician |
| DATE OF BIRTH | September 4, 1944 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Los Angeles , California |